Political Transformations of Modernity

Political Transformations of Modernity
By the 15th century, political power in much of Europe was dispersed among the
nobles. Kings had limited power, and some countries, such as Italy and Germany,
were not even unified states, as each city or region had its own government.
This allowed the consolidation of National States to begin during the Middle Ages,
this process was favored by the Centralization of Power in the hands of the Kings,
through Absolute Monarchies.
Characteristics that Consolidated Absolute Monarchies

1. Affirmation of the Dynastic Principle. Dynastic succession was respected with
suspicion, to the point of declaring wars to defend a family's permanence on the
throne.
2. The creation of a central power. Faced with the multitude of local feudal powers,
the monarchs built a power of national scope, which unified the territory.
3. The expansion of the bureaucratic apparatus. It was necessary to expand the
number of state officials in different areas, such as the economy, diplomacy and
the army.
4. The creation of permanent military bodies, paid for by the State. The
establishment of an army that would defeat the nobles, the rebellious peasants and
foreign troops was encouraged.
Fundamentals of Absolutism
Some of the foundations of Absolutism raised by different thinkers of the time are:
1. The existence of a powerful monarch was believed to be necessary to achieve
the unification of the disintegrated territories; it was also stated that the ruler's
obligation was to maintain the power and security of his country, regardless of the
means used for this. (Nicholas Machiavelli).
2. A theory of divine origin was based, according to which royal power was
granted to God, and the monarch was God's representative on Earth. (Jacques
Bossuet)
3. To live in society it was necessary for people to cede part of their rights to the
king, through a definitive and irrevocable social contract. For this contract to be
fulfilled, strong power was required, concentrated in a sovereign, or in an
assembly.
Spain | France | England |

It became the first monarchy to establish a centralized system of government.
Under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, power was consolidated and the
country was administered with the advice of different Councils, such as that of the
Indies or that of the Treasury. The constant wars against other countries wore
down the country's economy. | The government of Louis XIV was the most
representative stage of absolutism in Europe. The monarch gathered all the power
in his hands and did not trust his advisors, so he made government decisions in all
areas. Book wars with several European countries. | In this country absolutism was
not established. The reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James I attempted to
establish it, but its influence was stopped by Parliament. In 1689 Parliament
elected William III of Orange as King, who signed the Bill of Rights. In which the
power of the king was limited and control of the State was handed over to
Parliament. |
Enlightened Despotism
Absolutist kings very electively adopted the ideas of the Enlightenment. All those
notions that highlighted the importance of effective government, economic growth
and cultural modernization were implemented by some European monarchs. This
attempt to combine absolutism with Enlightenment ideas is called Enlightenment
despotism.
Enlightened despots introduced reforms in their governments, such as the
construction of canals, at the same time, they supported education and science,
and sought to improve public administration.
In this way, although the reforms benefited the population, they came at the cost
of political freedom in terms of citizen participation.
The most prominent enlightened despots were:
* Frederick II Prussia
* Charles III of Spain
* Catherine II of Russia
Trends that occurred in the new Colonial Powers and Empires

Absolutism gave periods of relative political stability to countries like Spain and
England. The first of them secured a vast territory during the reign of Charles V,
who inherited the power of almost all of Europe from his paternal and maternal
grandparents.
Shortly before his death, Charles V divided his estate and granted his brother
Ferdinand his dominions in Austria and Germany. He left Spain and the rest of his
positions to his son Felipe II. Under the reign of Philip II, the Spanish empire
experienced its greatest splendor and also the beginnings of its decline.
From then on, England, led by Elizabeth I, laid the foundations for the naval and
commercial dominance that it exercised during the following centuries. The English
monarchy promoted the construction of a powerful merchant fleet. In the 17th and
18th centuries, England expanded its colonial dominions to North America and the
Caribbean, to India, the Gold Coast and Tangier.
Holland, in turn, also had a share of power in Europe. The Dutch dominated spice
producing sectors in the East. Regarding colonial positions, the Dutch took over
some Spanish colonies, such as Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire, in the Caribbean
Sea. In 1630 they took the city of Recife from which they were soon expelled by
the Portuguese.
What did the illustration consist of?

Until the end of the 16th century, knowledge of the world and human beings had
been based on the ideas of Greek authors and the teachings of the Catholic
Church. But starting in the 17th century and during the 18th century, scientists
questioned those ideas and set out to discover nature through research.
The sciences that advanced the most:
* Astronomy: Galileo Galilei excelled in it, who perfected the heliocentric theory.
His conclusions were opposed to the church which affirmed that the Earth was the
center of the cosmos. Galileo was tried by the inquisition and forced to retract his
statements.
* Physiology and anatomy: William Harney, who discovered blood circulation, and
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek, who discovered the existence of microscopic organisms,
distinguished themselves in these fields.
* Chemistry: Its main representative was Antoine Lavoisier, who explained the
phenomenon of combustion.
* In Physics: Its most prominent representatives were: Isaac Newton, Gottfried
Leibniz. The law of universal gravitation was published, marking an important
change in Physics.
* Philosophy: In the 17th century, philosophers put their thinking at the service of
science in order to find research methods. Francis Bacon and René Descartes
stood out, who devised the theory of Rationalism.
In conclusion, all the reforms and changes that occurred in ancient times, as well
as the political transformations and those of the Enlightenment, have served as the
basis for the society we have today, because without all those steps that were
taken in the past things They would be very different from what we know today,
starting with the way nations are governed, the discovery of New Lands and the
education of people.
Just as the cultural transformations that occurred in the past, for which many
people had to die, allow us today to be the society that we are and whether our
“modern” societies would be chaos or would be something totally different from
what we we know.
Positive and Negative of comics and other
programs
There are several theories about the origin of cartoons, so we will name the most
notable ones:
1. The first examples of caricature that we find are those of ancient Egypt. All the
authors who have been in charge of studying the subject agree in tracing its origins
to the Mesopotamian, Pre-Columbian, Egyptian cultures...; [i] Thus Gaya Nuño
points out with regard to Egypt [ii] that in different papyri such as that of the British
Museum, that of the Archaeological Museum of Cairo or the Museum of
Egyptology of Turin (all belonging to the 20th dynasty), Various animals such as
the donkey, the lion, the crocodile or the monkey are represented, playing
instruments within a luxurious environment, or even a scene in which a rat sitting
on a throne receives a lotus flower as an offering from a cat. , a scene that is
watched by other rats that carry real attributes[iii]
Japanese Animation: What is it? The famous “Anime” (cartoons of Japanese
origin) today is, in its country of origin: Japan, the equivalent of television series in
Venezuela, Mexico and Chile, that is, something daily and for mass consumption.
Everyone sees it, adults, children, single or married. To the point that it has
become specialized. There are anime for children, for teenagers, for adults, for
every taste, and also for every sexual tendency. Who doesn't remember the classic
Japanese characters, which are now a legend, such as: Mazinger Z, Jet-Mars, The
Falcon and Robotec. And how can we forget those innocent dramas, like Candy,
Remi and the melancholic Marco with his song: "Don't go mom... don't get away
from me...!" that left everyone crying. Those were its beginnings.
In Japan they are broadcast at all times, they are crazy and the ratings give them
the highest score at all times. Such is the production of anime that there are
already hundreds of printed magazines (comics) to improve competition. The target
market of Anime. The anime audience ranges from three years old to twenty-two
years old, sometimes older as well.
One of the fundamental characteristics of television cartoon heroes is that the
characters acquire their investiture from a virtue or power that makes them
exceptional from others, even different from their audience, on the television
screen or in comics, many of these superheroes are the product of laboratory
errors or failed nuclear experiments.
In the beginnings of television we were able to see an indisputable predominance

of the North American cartoon in which a permanent allusion was made to typical
themes of the Cold War, but at least in the last 10 years, the American cartoon has
stopped dominating in the tastes and preferences of TV children, this vast
audience has been directing their love towards other Japanese animated television
series that reflect other types of stories and that do not show that delirious concern
of superheroes permanently worried about saving the earth from invasions. aliens,
or fight for the good of humanity.
Television seems to constitute an important stimulus in the development of
comprehension capacity by favoring the acquisition of cognitive and linguistic skills,
especially in children of low social level, which would provide the content that they
cannot extract from their environment, and in children with a Relatively low IQ.
Learning achievements from cultural or entertainment programs are incidental.
Educational programs such as "Sesame Street", for example, have shown benefits
that consist of increasing the skills to recognize and name letters, classify objects,
name parts of the body and recognize geometric shapes, in addition, children
arrive at kindergarten with a good vocabulary and very well predisposed to learning
to read. However, this program does not reduce the differences between
advantaged and disadvantaged children. On the other hand, these programs can
teach children to cooperate, to share, to be affectionate, friendly, to control
aggression, how to deal with frustration and to finish the tasks they undertake.
Models of harmonious family relationships and understanding and educational
cooperative behavior can be presented. However, the effect of prosocial television
is weak, which can be explained by the relative inclusion of various emotions in
that medium.
These educational programs are the rarest in Latin America, which can be
explained because, on the one hand, they have a high cost, and generally have
very small audiences.
And the parents?

In this sense, it is parents and teachers who have the task of explaining important
aspects of childhood sexuality to children; That is, once they understand and
understand them. Otherwise, the simplest path is followed: censoring the cartoon
and avoiding a task that corresponds to them.
The Pokémon cartoon; whose name is made up of two English words: pocket and
monsters, that is, pocket monsters. It was first presented as a video game and in
the nineties it became a cartoon. Today they are broadcast in several countries in
America and are children's favorites. Pokemania invaded the planet. The film has
caused a spectacular stir, generating many millions of dollars. And who is picachú?
This apparently cute yellow being was created based on a fallen angel (demon)
and god of thunder and is one of the 150 monsters that appear in the cartoon.
The old and the new

The good ones, like Sleeping Beauty, were always white, beautiful, young and
sweet; and the bad ones, like the witch from Hansel and Gretel, ugly, old, deceitful
and even capable of consuming human flesh or perpetrating other similar
atrocities. No middle points.
These stories fulfilled and surely still fulfill their role in the education of millions of
children who, once adults, are supposed to come to understand that the world is a
little more complex and that, as the Yoruba gods have tried to show us, the Freud's
thesis, or the characters of Cabrujas, no one is totally good or totally bad, nor does
physical appearance necessarily have to do with goodness or evil, and that every
human group, including that which is historically supposed to be the good ones, is
It moves permanently between the tension of both poles.
But, unfortunately, that has not been the case. History has taught us that not all
adults reach these conclusions, nor understand that the enunciation of a world
capable of being divided strictly between good and evil, impious and just, brave
and cowardly, has been a recurring temptation that divides unnecessarily nations,
ignores the complexity of human existence, and becomes a true threat to rational
coexistence.
Conclusion
The important and growing role of television in society has influenced the lives of
all its members, especially children, who are those who spend the most hours in
front of the television.
For this reason, saying that TV has a great influence on the development of
children is not news to anyone. It is also known that these influences can be both
negative and positive.
Scientific concern has focused on the first type, among which we can highlight the
large amount of violence broadcast on television in programs for adults and also in
those intended for children. Although a causal relationship cannot be established, it
is known that they are correlated. Television can also cause, with programs with
stereotypical content, that children who have a life different from established
patterns develop a feeling of not belonging and at the same time generate their
rejection by other children. Fortunately this is changing and programs increasingly
show non-traditional families and much less stereotypical gender roles (mothers
work, there are policewomen, lawyers, etc.).
With respect to positive influences, it can be said that they are weaker, since
programs of this type are scarce and/or are not well constructed. If so, it benefits
the child by giving him a more solid foundation in his learning, but it all depends on
how he acquires and interprets the information. It is also important to highlight that
television allows, through cultural programs, knowledge of the world, different
countries and their cultures.
In recent years, television channels aimed at teaching in an entertaining way have

emerged, these are intended for children, but are also useful and attractive for
adults (for example, Discovery Channel). These are efforts to promote television
with higher quality in its programs.

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Political Transformations of Modernity

Characteristics that Consolidated Absolute Monarchies

Spain | France | England |

Trends that occurred in the new Colonial Powers and Empires

What did the illustration consist of?

In the beginnings of television we were able to see an indisputable predominance

And the parents?

The old and the new

In recent years, television channels aimed at teaching in an entertaining way have

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